Lukoil Taps Bluewater for Soft Yoke Mooring System

Bluewater Energy Services B.V. has been recently awarded a contract by LUKOIL - Nizhnevolzhskneft for the delivery of Soft Yoke Mooring System for export of crude oil. The system will be part of Lukoil's Yurii Korchagin field development and installed in a water depth of 20 meters and 200 km offshore Russian coast in the Caspian Sea.

Crude oil will be produced by a platform about 60 km North of the Soft Yoke Mooring System location. Via a pipeline crude oil will be transferred to the Soft Yoke Mooring System. A Floating Storage and Offloading vessel (30,000 dwt.) will be permanently moored to the Soft Yoke Mooring System and store the crude oil. Shuttle tankers will be connected to the Floating Storage and Offloading vessel to unload the crude oil. The Soft Yoke Mooring System will be designed for Arctic environmental conditions, i.e. withstand forces generated by relatively thick ice sheets.

Bluewater's scope of supply for the system includes the design, procurement and fabrication of Soft Yoke Mooring System including hoses and mooring system. Bluewater will also supply a system which enables disconnection of the Floating Storage and Offloading vessel from the Soft Yoke Mooring System. Delivery is expected to take place in the second half of 2008.

"Bluewater's Single Point Mooring Systems, such as the Soft Yoke Mooring System, especially designed and fabricated for the harsh Arctic Conditions are increasingly finding favor with clients worldwide due to specific design considerations that result in lower Capital and Operational Expenditure costs for those kind of systems ," stated Hugo Heerema, President of Bluewater Energy Services B.V.

Bluewater Energy Services B.V., a member of the Bluewater group of companies, has built a technological lead specializing in lease and operation of tanker-based Production and Storage (FPSO/FSO) systems, and has become a leading provider of advanced Single Point Mooring (SPM) systems. Bluewater operates worldwide with offices in The Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States, Nigeria, Angola, South Africa, Malaysia and China.